What Happened to the Officials?

Broncos Vs Falcons game:  My thoughts

The Falcons played flawless football.  They dominated the Bronco offense and managed to move the ball against a great Bronco defense.  In the end, I don't think they're a better team than the Broncos.  Although that doesn't' matter because they played that way tonight and that's what really counts.  They're 2-0 and they earned it.  Ultimately, the Broncos played very poorly and dug themselves into a deep hole with four first quarter turnovers.  End of freaking story.  My complaint is with the officials.

I don't want to say that it is because of the officials that the Falcons won.  The game would have most likely had the same outcome considering how well they were playing versus how terrible the Broncos were playing.  The best team won today.  But anyone watching football these past two weeks can easily tell that these replacement referees are destroying professional football.  Every game I've watched these past couple of weeks has been overrun with yellow flags and piss poor calls.  Here are a few you may recall from tonights game.

-The pass interference call against the Broncos defense when the player was clearly three feet away from the receiver.

-The fumble recovery that was awarded to the Falcons when it was a Bronco player who emerged from the pile, ball in hand.  

-The part where the Falcons where called for defensive holding and the refs moved the ball six yards closer to the end zone when it shouldn't have been.

A couple of those are game changing calls.  I think it was a third down incompletion when pass interference was called.  The Falcons went on to score a touchdown.  They wouldn't have had that opportunity if it weren't for that botched call.  The Broncos were in field goal position after that fumble and yet the ball was given to the Falcons.  Would the Broncos have scored that touchdown at the end of the half if the ball was placed where it was supposed to be?  We will never know.  The game is over and the end result is what it is.  But as football fans, we cannot excuse this type of officiating.  The NFL is a professional league and I feel that the refs need to match that standard.  Now we've all been in that position where we blame the refs for a loss, and most of the time we know deep down that it really wouldn't have mattered.  Now, however, fans can probably makes those claims with some validity behind them.  

I'm not entirely sure I can put up with the entire season so as long as these referees are managing the games.  It has been an awful first two weeks in the NFL and I'm sure fans from every team can agree.  My wife is a Steelers fan and she has pointed out all the terrible calls against the Steelers when they faced off against the Broncos.  I think the NFL needs to give in to the real refs and punt these terrible replacements back to wherever they came from so we can get some nice, clean football.  This way, when a team like the Falcons makes my Broncos look like a little league team, I'll have only the donkeys to bitch about.

Leave Me Alone

What's the deal with die hard Apple fans?  I don't understand why every time I have a negative thing to say about an Apple product I get shit thrown in my face yet it's okay for them to tell me what low life piece of shit I am for using a PC.  For anyone to think any less of me as a person because I've chosen to use a specific product that rivals what they like is ludicrous.  I don't go around telling people what morons they are because they play the Playstation 3 rather than the Xbox.  Can't we all get along?  I don't think so.  I have yet to see anyone act superior to other people because they've surrounded themselves with PC stuff.  That's why when I see someone boasting about their Macs I can't help but wonder if that person thinks he or she is better than everyone else who doesn't use one.  I've experienced this type of behavior many times before so it's become a natural thought to me.  I actually had a friend on Facebook tell the world how elitist she was because she uses a Mac Book, iPad, iPhone, and iPod.  She got mad when I told her that I owned an idontfuckingcare.  

So my Facebook friends and my close family members know that I have recently switched schools so that I may pursue a new degree.  I've come to the realization that computer programming is not for me, but writing just might be.  I'm not a perfect writer but I certainly do my best so that I can hone in on a skill set that I believe I possess.  I'm switching from Liberty University Online to Full Sail University Online.  One of the neat little perks about Full Sail, other than caring about their students more than Liberty (long story), is that they send you a Mac Book Pro as a tool to assist with your learning.  The cost of my computer is being added into my tuition.  I've never been a fan of Mac.  I use my mom's Mac all the time and it really just hasn't appealed to me.  Well I just recently received my Mac Book Pro and I have to say that I'm a little impressed and unimpressed at the same time.

This machine is powerful and I totally love that.  2.6 gigahertz compared to my much slower PC running upstairs is a huge plus.  On top of the speed, this machine is drop dead gorgeous.  I love the slim design and how light it is.  I love the silky gray color with the black lining.  I even enjoy looking at the lit up apple on the backside of the lid and on top of that, the keyboard lights up!  I love that.  The computer itself runs very smoothly and its very graceful about the way it takes me from window to window.  I also enjoy the little dashboard area that has all of my applications laid out for my picking.

Here's the thing though, those are the only things that really impressed me about this computer.  I've already had a good share of time spent on my mom's Mac and I've known for a good time that they're not really for me.  I've been able to navigate and learn about using this machine fairly quickly due to some amazing support from my school's website, which is full of very useful tutorials.  I know that I will enjoy going to school on a Mac because Full Sail seems to have a great support system I can fall back on if I hit any road bumps.  But the fact of the matter is, this computer really hasn't offered me anything to do that my PC hasn't.  Hell, I'm typing this blog up on a cruddy word processor titled TextEdit on the Mac which feels like a crappier version of the very first version of Microsoft Word.  It's terrible and it reminds me of the notepad on my desktop.  Fortunately, Full Sail is sending me a copy of Microsoft Office.  Thank, God.

Things I don't like: *Ahem*

I do not like the fact that there isn't a right click.  Don't jump down my throat you psychotic fanboys, I know that I need to press down on the mouse pad with two fingers rather than one to get the "right click" option.  Useless.  I spend more time trying to get this to function properly than I would on the PC where they have a designated button for right click.  I know the Mac likes to "simplify things, but this is just silly.  Is it really that hard to add two separate buttons?  I suppose people could say the same about pressing down on the single clicker with two fingers.  Whatever, this is a personal preference issue.

I do not like how some things are ass backwards.  I suppose it's no big deal, but things like the exit button on a window is in the upper left hand corner rather than the upper right.  Personal preference issue really.  Also, the favorites bar is located on the left hand side and I don't really care being taken to a different page in order to select one.  Why can't it just drop a menu?  To me, it feels so much easier this way.  I'm just set in my ways baby.  

I do not like that Apple wants me to sign up for an Apple ID for EVERYTHING!  Today my computer was telling me that there was a software update that I needed to download.  I said okay, do it Mr. Machine.  So it starts to download and then it tells me that in order to download, it needs me to sign in with my Apple ID or register for an Apple ID if I didn't have one.  Okay, why not.  So I try signing up for an Apple ID and it told me that in order to sign up I had to provide a credit card and billing information.  WHAT!!!!  I don't want to purchase anything from the Apple store, so why would I want to provide that kind of information?  If I'm handing out my credit card info, it's going to be to purchase something.  Not once, ever, has the PC required me to give them my credit information in order to download a software update.  This is just ludicrous, absolutely uncalled for.

So no wonder Apple fans are so dedicated to their company of choice.  It's because they are required to be.  So much time and money is forced out of people that abandoning Apple would result in a loss of all those things.  Being a fan and avid user results into a serious commitment.  The same can be said for other companies though.  People are going to flock to what they like and they will be faithful to it.  I don't have a problem with people enjoying Mac as much as they do, but please don't try to make me feel like a piece of shit because I prefer the rival.  I worked with this girl in Mississippi that was so excited about being a Mac user that she told me that only fat gamer nerds use PC's while smart, sophisticated, upper class people use Macs.  Total.  Crock.  Of.  Shit.  I get this type of reaction out of a lot of Mac fans and I'm rather tired of it.

Overall I have to say that I do not agree with the practices of Apple, but they really do make decent machines.  Other than personal preference issues, i don't think the Mac and PC are all that different.  They both accomplish the exact same things and that's okay.  It all comes down to what a person prefers to use.  I will use the Mac Book Pro, a lot, I can promise you that.  But I will also use my PC just as much if not more.  It's just what I prefer to use.  So please, for the love of God, leave me alone about the products I choose to use.  I'm a consumer and I'm allowed to make my own decisions just like you.  Sheesh.

EA Is the Devil

The online gaming world can be extremely frustrating, especially when you’re getting whooped up by a twelve year old girl who t-bags you every time she puts you to sleep.  It boils my skin so much when this happens to me that I’ve slowly drifted away from competitive online gaming to cooperative and single player gaming.  This is a nice comfy realm where I can play games for fun, hunt down achievements, and get along with my friends in a place that isn’t bursting at the seams with adrenaline.  There’s no way a person can get angry in that kind of place, right?  Wrong.  Madden 2012 opened my eyes today and revealed to me that a small few games can be irritating without even having to play them.  Oh, and it also helped me figure out why I hate EA. 

During a game of Madden Ultimate Team mode, where I was in the process of making the Buccaneers look as talented as my 4 year old daughter’s flag football team, an error message popped up.  Apparently my connection to the EA server had been lost and all the coins and stats I was racking up wound up being obsolete.  What?  I was playing offline against the computer.  Why the hell do I need to be connected to the EA server in order to enjoy some offline gaming against a noobified AI that won’t t-bag me every time they score a touchdown?  Is this the direction gaming headed?  If so you can count me the fuck out.  I don’t want to be forced to be connected to the internet in order to enjoy a SINGLE PLAYER GAME!  I suppose it makes sense to be connected to the internet if I want to play against other people online, but in this particular case I wanted to play alone.  Can you imagine a world where you have to have an online pass to play Skyrim? 

On top of Madden 12 being the product of half assed effort, I have to put up with this type of garbage?  I’m lucky Best Buy was selling it for ten bucks brand new or else I would’ve had to pay an extra ten dollars for an online pass that I would use to play OFFLINE!  I don’t understand why I have to pay extra for something that COMES ON THE DISK I ALREADY FUCKING PAID FOR!  I understand why they have the online pass and I still think it’s a total crock of shit.  Here’s a thought for you EA.  You know that used game that Joe Schmoe purchased from the used game section at GameStop and is playing online still constitutes as ONE FUCKING PERSON playing on your servers.  The original person who bought it didn’t like it enough to keep it in their library of games, so they let someone else have the fun.  You still received payment for the original copy that was sold, what does it matter who is playing it?  That disc is only occupying one slot in your online community, and that’s if the person is even attempting to play it online.  This business practice is absurd and it would be no better than Nissan charging people extra money to drive on the road if they purchased their vehicle used rather than brand new.  Nope, you can purchase used vehicles without having to pay the manufacturer anything extra because they’re smart enough to not rip their customers off.  They sold a vehicle and that’s all that matters, who gives a shit what is done with it after the fact? 

This whole situation got me thinking about how EA was awarded The Consumerist’s 2012 Golden Poo Award for being the worst company in America.  The decision was based on the consumers who voted and at the time I figured it had something to do with the Mass Effect 3 ending over at Bioware.  Perhaps EA got their money hungry hands on that freaking beautiful franchise and defiled it in the name of douche baggery.  I did a little research on this subject because I couldn’t understand how a company that has published so many great titles could even make an appearance on this kind of poll.  Then again I don’t really purchase many games published by EA, and if I have, they’re probably sitting on my shelf or I played them before EA started shitting on their fans.  So after doing a bit of research I found out that EA is disliked because of their business practices, not because of the Mass Effect 3 ending.  You might recognize some of these useless freaking things such as DAY 1 DLC!  Holy shit, what a load of crap is it to work on DLC before the game is released?  Downloadable content should never be unlocked from the game disc let alone on day one because if I pay sixty dollars for that disc, I’m entitled to EVERYTHING that is on it.  On top of that, DLC is supposed to be an afterthought.  Hey, this game is doing really well; let’s support our fans by making more content for them and in return they can pay us for the extra effort and support we’ve put into this game.  EXTRA effort!  I’m more inclined to pay for DLC if the company took the time to continually support a game AFTER it was released.  I won’t pay for DLC if it was premeditated content that was most likely stripped from the original game and is patiently waiting on the disk I purchased to be unlocked as the developer rapes my wallet.    

I remember a time in gaming where DLC was a special treat that not every game company took the time to produce.  Halo 2 was the first time I’ve seen a company support their game after the fact because they had such a great following that more content was a necessity to keep the growing horde at bay.  Today’s gaming world is much different because DLC has become a tool for developers to half ass their games so that they can milk you for more than sixty dollars in order to get the complete game.  Then they taunt the achievement addicts by offering more lame ass achievements for ten dollars.  Before you know it, you spent over a hundred dollars on a game that really isn’t worth it.  However bad DLC has gotten, nothing comes close to being true evil like day one DLC and DLC that has been included on the games disc.  They write the DLC onto the same disc that the original game comes with.  So then tell me where the downloadable part of DLC is?  Wallet rape, we consumers are being fucking raped and we don’t even care.  We go out and purchase this SHIT because we are freaking mindless zombies that pay insurmountable amounts of money on a game just because the word “Halo” is in the title (I’m guilty of that).  But I digress.

Now there are other reasons that people hate EA, but I have never had any experiences with them.  Reading about them is enough to piss me off though.  Things like early server closings or expired online passes that come with new copies of a game are just a couple of many small things EA is doing to rip their fans off.  I don’t really need to get into those issues though because I’ve never experienced them first hand.  Other people took the time to write about it though, so go check it out.  Here, here, and here.  EA pissed me off for the last time.  First they took away NFL 2K, rubbed day one DLC in my face, and now this needing to be connected to the internet shit?  I wish I could say that I started this blog just  being pissed off about needing to be connected to the internet to play one stupid mode on the crappiest Madden game I’ve ever played, but now I’m realizing that EA has done a massive disservice to its fans with their unethical business practices.  But with everything that I have to bitch about I cannot help but wonder if it’s not partially my fault and every other gamers fault for allowing this to happen to us.  If we don’t stop it now, EA won’t be the only company we’re complaining about. 

My Best Man Speech

On Friday, August 3rd, my brother got married.  I had the special honor of being his best man and with that responsibility, I wrote him a speech.  Since I've had the speech saved on my computer, I decided to post it here.  The real speech was a little different, but this was the guideline that I followed.  The following is dedicated to my brother Kyle and his new wife, Mattie.

I would like to thank everyone for coming out to celebrate the marriage of Kyle and Mattie Brightman.  For those of you who don’t know, I’m Kyle’s brother Cody and I would like to share a few thoughts.  I’ve known Kyle my entire life.  That’s twenty three years of memories that have.  I wanted to share some of the embarrassing ones, but then I figured telling people that he slept with the bathroom light on until he was ten would be a little tasteless.  Then I’d figure that I’d tell the story about how I borrowed our parent’s car without permission and it was Kyle who pointed out to my mom that someone stole the Camero.  But thinking of that got me reminiscing about the Cody and Kyle crime fighting team.

One day, before the rise of cell phones, Kyle and I were being nosey and listening in on a phone conversation that my sister was having.  Apparently Paige and a friend that was staying over were concocting a super secret plan to “borrow” the car, which ironically Kyle now drives.  So Kyle and I decided to join forces to bring down a common enemy who has thrown us under the bus many a time.  It was nearing 1130 at night when my sister and her friend came down to make sure we weren’t going to interrupt their plans, but we knew it was a ploy.   Almost immediately after they went back upstairs, Kyle and I left through his window and landed ourselves underneath our dad’s camper.  We waited until our bandit sister and her sidekick escaped the house, marked the car’s wheels with rocks, and pushed it twenty yards down the street.  We patiently waited our move as the girls realized that they didn’t know how to operate a stick shift.  They’d get ten feet before doo doo doo the car stalled.  Once they reached the corner I looked at Kyle and said, “go get mom and dad, stat!”  I rushed to my vehicle for a chase while Kyle burst into my parent’s room, flipping the lights on, and screaming “MOM!  DAD!  WAKE UP!  PAIGE TOOK THE CAR!  THEY LEFT!”  Kyle had later told me that waking dad up like that was a bad idea because his first reaction to the unnecessary chaos was to try and punch Kyle in the face.  It’s too bad our crime fighting team ended the same night it started Kyle, I’m sure we could have changed the world brother. 

I’ve watched Kyle grow up alongside me over the years and I’m very proud of his accomplishments.  I’m proud to see that he’s all growd up with a great college education and a great job.  I’m also very happy for him to have found a person as great as Mattie.  You guys now get to experience the greatest thing about marriage.  Each other.  Tomorrow when you wake up, the world will feel complete, everything will sounds better, everything will taste better, and even the air will smell better, assuming you brush your teeth.  Everything becomes better when you have someone to share it with.  Cherish these moments because before you know it you’ll have kids of your own and time will begin to fly.  But just remember through all the chaos that you love each other and that no matter what obstacles may face you, together you can get through them. 

Extended Cut DLC: My thoughts

OF COURSE THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE!

The relationship between video game developers and fans has entered a new realm.  Never before in the history of gaming can I remember fans having such an impact on a game that is already on the market.  For a few months fans like me have been crying for a new ending, or at least an expansion to the ending we got, and Bioware delivered.  Now despite what you may think about their “fixed” ending knows this, they cared enough to at least try to satisfy their fans.  Hell, maybe they did it for themselves as well.  They saw the potential to right a wrong and labored for months to release a FREE expansion to an ending they had already “completed”.  It should have been what was included with the original release, but the fact that they had the integrity to right this wrong solidifies my place as a Bioware fan.

I stated in my last article that the last five minutes of the game destroys the credibility of the writers.  It took away everything that defined Mass Effect and forced an unwanted ending no matter what we chose.  But maybe I’m wrong to assume that it is the fault of the writers.  Perhaps they were rushed or overruled with the plot decisions.  No matter how it went down, the ending was terrible and literally tore apart everything that made me love the franchise.  Choices were stolen from me and new plot holes were opened rather than the old ones closing.  Then entire thing was a disaster.  I’m happy to say though, that Bioware has delivered and satisfied my need for closure with this story.  In my last article titled, “Mass Effect 3 Broke My Heart,” I listed off my top ten reasons for disliking that piss poor excuse of an ending.  In this article I will revisit my statements and tell you what has been fixed.  Keep in mind that the ending is the same, but many of the unanswered questions and loop holes have been tended to.

1.       My first complaint was about the sixteen “wildly” different endings that were promised, yet undelivered.  Each ending was practically the same thing minus the color of the explosion.  For my last review I only watched the separate endings on Youtube to verify that they were the same.  I didn’t really want to go through and witness the same ending three times in a row, especially because I was very upset at the time.  That has all changed though because the Extended Cut DLC offers different endings, all unique in their own way.  Each ending, (Syntesis, Renegade, Paragon, and Rejection) all have their OWN unique endings.  They are similar here and there due to their origins, but the end result was a lot better than different colored explosions followed by the EXACT same sequences.  At least this time around it feels as if my decisions made a difference for the outcome rather than being forced into the same exact outcome no matter how I played the trilogy.     

2.       Why did the Normandy crew just bail on their Commander?  This was probably one of the biggest piss offs for me because I’ve grown to love these characters and this heinous act just tarnished their credibility.  I just couldn’t accept the fact that they would flee like a bunch of wimps after everything that they had been through.  These are the same people that walked into a suicide mission with me during the events of the last game.  They knew full well then what the consequences could be, what changed their minds about now?  On top of that cowardice, it made me feel that they were never really loyal.  The entire game made me feel like I was surrounded by loyal people who would die for me, and that was destroyed in a matter of seconds.  Fortunately this was something else that was fixed.  After Sheppard activates his/her option, Admiral Hackett orders the fleets to retreat.  Joker is shown going on about his badassery when Garrus tells him that it’s time.  To me it’s a logical reason.  We created this weapon that is supposed to wipe out all the reapers in the galaxy, I’d back away from the blast zone too.  This brings back the credibility that was lost because instead of fleeing from battle, they were fleeing from an explosion that could take out more than just the bad guys.  It makes sense and I accept it.

3.       How did the crew that was on the ground with me wind up on the Normandy as it was fleeing?  The last time I saw Liara and Ashley was when we were all running towards the conduit.  Yet at the end of the game I see them step off of the ship with Joker after the Normandy’s crash landing.  Even other characters that were back at the rendezvous on Earth wound up on the ship.  But when and how did they manage that?  Fixed.  During the run, your squad almost gets crushed by a Mako and one of them actually winds up hurt.  Sheppard calls Joker in for an evacuation and we get to see whoever is in our squad safely leave the battlefield.  In my case, it was more emotional because Sheppard said his last goodbye to his love interest.  The story flows much better with these types of holes sealed up. 

4.       The Star Child was a massive complaint from me because he was full of shit.  He was introduced in the last five minutes of the game which I felt was rather tacky.  He stated that he created synthetics to destroy organics to prevent those organics from creating synthetics that might in turn destroy the organics.  Sounds crazy right?  Well that’s not exactly fixed, but it also kind of is.  I never liked how my Sheppard just kept taking this bullshit by hanging onto the kids every word.  Not once did he argue with him or give him a valid counterpoint to think about.  Nope.  This time around, instead of sitting there and taking all of this kids crap, Sheppard can actually interact and give him some lip.  We get more information about the reapers and a little bit about their creators.  We learn that the original reaper was the first civilization to be harvested (which I believe was also the creators).  I still think the kid is full of crap for the most part, but the gratifying thing about this confrontation is that it gives Sheppard a lot more leeway in his reactions rather than having him sit back and accept this crappy fate that this no named piece of shit is feeding him.  Synthetics will destroy organics who created synthetics that could potentially destroy turn on them and wipe them out.  Good thing, it could have been a massacre.  

5.       Complaints five and six can actually be answered at the same time here.  The Mass Relays were completely destroyed in the original ending, which as we have seen in the Arrival DLC, wipes out an entire system.  So if every relay is destroyed, wouldn’t that mean every system that houses one would be destroyed too?  That would mean that both the reapers and ALL advanced organic life would be non-existent.  Even if the relays didn’t destroy the systems they were in, the entire galaxy is in the Sol system because that’s where the final battle took place.  The final battle was on a planet that probably can’t even feed its own people anymore, let alone a bunch of aliens, most of whom can’t eat human food.  Starvation seems like the only plausible outcome, at least until they FIXED IT!  The relays don’t get completely destroyed in the Extended Cut DLC.  Sure they take some hefty damage and stop working, but from the looks of it, they seem like they can be repaired rather easily.

6.       The fact that I reach the end of the game and my choices meant nothing was a major downer.  As I stated in response to my first complaint, each choice renders its own unique ending, and this time a fourth option is available.  I know a lot of people could care less about it, but to me it exposed a very real possibility, which is why I love this game.  The rejection option allows Sheppard to do exactly what I wanted to do, say fuck off to the Star Child and decide my own fate.  Unfortunately if you choose that option you get wiped out, completely.  Bioware took into consideration every possible outcome and getting decimated was a great one.  And even though it feels like a huge failure, it’s not.  The sequence to this ending showed the time capsule that Liara put together to help save the civilizations in the next cycle from defeat.  It’s bittersweet, we didn’t get to accomplish this, but we’ve made it so you can, go nuts.  I was just in awe when I saw that because I spent three games trying to prevent that very thing from happening and in reality, not everything has a happy ending.  It was also great because that decision was based on CHOICE!  This ending along with three other tastefully rendered endings brought about closure and made me happy. 

7.       Here come the downers.  The minor things that bugged me about the original ending still don’t make sense to me.  Like why was Citadel brought to Earth and why was there a single point of entry that led directly to the control room?  Why did Harbinger leave the conduit unprotected while there was still activity on the ground, knowing full well that if the arms of the Citadel are opened, his race could be destroyed?  How does Anderson beat Sheppard to the top?  How is it that Anderson tells Sheppard they came up in different areas, yet he beats Sheppard to the control panel, despite the fact that when Sheppard walks out of the room he’s in there is only ONE walkway to the control panel from Sheppards EXACT location?  How does the Illusive man get there, why isn’t Anderson blown to hell like Sheppard, how is it that Anderson was shot in his left side yet it’s Sheppard who is clutching a fresh wound in that exact spot?  Why the hell are the trees from Sheppard’s dreams still behind him after he is knocked down?  Not one fucking answer, but that’s okay because I can live with it considering they’re minor imperfections that I’m being anal about.

8.     How does the Illusive control both Anderson and Sheppard?  I mean, he himself is indoctrinated, not Sheppard and Anderson.  Throughout the entire series that capability has been non-existent, so why now?  The Illusive man had recently found out how to control other people, sure, but his methods were the same as the Reapers which turned his subjects into monsters.  Sheppard and Anderson aren’t husks, so what gives?  We may never know how this came to be because they didn’t address it.

9.       I just didn’t like the ending scene where the Stargazer was talking to the child about “The Sheppard”.  I found it to be corny and useless, but that honestly would have been my opinion regardless.  This wasn’t a matter that was fixed, not that it really needed to be.

Oh yes, the Indoctrination Theory has been disproved.  How awesome would that have been though to see our hero have this inner battle at the end of the game?  I was half hoping my Sheppard would be successful in his endeavors, only to wake up to a final boss battle against Harbinger.  Nope, the endings are what they are, but you have to admit that it was a very clever idea considering all of the strange things that seemed to line up.  The trees from Sheppard’s dreams are still behind you during the last sequence.  The little boy that no one seems to notice wasn’t addressed.  Sheppard clutches a fresh bullet wound in the exact same spot that Anderson was shot.  It may have been a coincidence, but it would have been an awesome alternative.  I’m actually okay with it either way though because Bioware delivered on what they promised.  Closure.  A three minute slideshow/cut scene plays after the events of the original ending and gives us a glimpse of the people that fought beside us and that we have grown connections with.  Jack is shown talking to her students, Zaeed is shown lounging in a lawn chair, and Samara is shown with her daughter (to name a few).  I saved Samara from suicide and it was nice to see that she kept her promise about going back to see her last child.  It was nice to see the Reapers vacate the other worlds in the galaxy so that we could see the scale of what we accomplished.  It was nice to see a tribute made to the fallen squad mates as well.  The most touching was when Sheppard’s love interest put his name on the memorial wall on the Normandy.  I’ve walked by that wall so many times during my play through and even read all of the names of the people who died serving on the Normandy.  Seeing Admiral Anderson’s name alongside Sheppard’s was surreal, and melancholic.  But it gave me the closure that I didn’t have before and I’m happy to have an end.  I kind of wish I didn’t play Mass Effect 3 until this Extended Cut was released because it’s exactly what should have been there in the first place.  But regardless I give this DLC a 9/10 and I highly recommend trying it out.

Mass Effect 3 Broke My Heart

SPOILER WARNING: This post contains all the dirty details of the Mass Effect series, most notably Mass Effect 3 and its notoriously awful ending.  If you don’t want to be pissed off until you beat the game for yourself, then go no further, but those of you who already completed the game or don’t really care if you know ending, then go ahead and proceed.  It won’t be a total bash fest, I promise.

Mass Effect is the most massive game I’ve ever played and I mean that in every aspect.  The universe is huge, the writing is very extensive, and the game play is extremely unique.  You don’t need me to remind you of how the game is played or what the story is so I won’t dive into that.  Hell, if you haven’t played any of the Mass Effect games you probably wouldn’t be reading an article about the third game.  Certainly some of you would have to agree that this space odyssey could possibly be one of the best stories told through video games.  Just recently on G4tv.com, Mass Effect won the Video Game Deathmatch: The Greatest Story EverTold, which was voted by fans, probably all of those same fans who have ranted and raved about the ending.  So since Mass Effect is one of my favorite franchises, I felt compelled to throw in my two cents on the game’s ending, despite it being three months since the game released.  I hate having that feeling that I should rush to play my game in order to keep up with the crowd.  I hate that games get released and people beat them in DAYS, when it takes me months to do so.  So if you’re an asshole who’s going to tell me that this topic is sooooo three months ago, let me just save you some time and give you my response now.  Have fun being a virgin. 

The entire Mass effect 3 game is a solid 9 out of 10 on my scale.  The combat is smooth and the story is riveting.  After two games of trying to stop the Reapers (which was just as hopeless as John Connor trying to stop the rise of the machines) we are finally at war with them, and they are scary.  The best part of the Mass Effect trilogy, in my opinion, has been the emotional connection you get when you put time into the games.  You get to know the characters and with great story writing, you can literally feel their struggle.  Bioware is amazing in this area because their writing is so vast and imaginative that in the first game you can travel to a random planet, find a body, and read about the dude’s history off of the data pad he had on him.  Each and every planet has a description too.  On top of that, each alien race (even the insignificant ones) has a detailed history that you can read about.  Bioware even wrote the history of the extinct race that used to control the galaxy.  The back ground stories make the current one much greater in my opinion.  As a gamer I was able to tell that these races, all of them, had everything to lose.  I felt sorrow watching the Asari home world get destroyed, I felt sad when Mordin died, I felt anger when earth was being overrun, and I felt frustration when Cerberus presented itself to being just as much of a threat to the survival of the galaxy as the Reapers.  I felt all of this because of the great writing, but it was also the writing that turned a 9 into a 5.

I’ll play Mass Effect 3 again, and probably again, just like I did the first two games, but it won’t be for the same reasons.  I talked about the writing in the last paragraph but I failed to mention the most superb writing in the trilogy takes place during the dialogue trees where you get to make decisions and talk to people.  Decision making in this trilogy is important because it affects the future.  I’m not sure if you played the game more than once like I have, but let me give you an example of how decisions have a direct impact on things, even minor ones.  Kelly Chambers.  She was the chick in the second game that stood next to the map control on deck 2.  During the second game she, along with the rest of the Normandy crew, gets kidnapped by the Collectors.  I made the decision to go after them immediately and because I didn’t screw around before going to save them, Chambers lived.  Had I waited to go save the crew I would have arrived just in time to watch her die.  Pretty crazy right?  It gets better.  If you save her in the second game you can talk to her in the third game.  After Cerberus attacks the Citadel, I found out that they flushed Chambers out and executed her because she quit working for them.  I was so pissed off because I didn’t know how to save her; I just thought it was her time (like she’s real).  On my second play through though, I paid more attention to my dialogue with her and found that I could convince her to change her identity.  She did and she lived, all because of the choices I made. 

That example is minor though, compared to the large scale of how the trilogy played out.  In the end, I played my cards right on every game.  I played the first game five times (mainly for achievements) and re-arranged how I wanted the story to play out.  I wanted to bang Ashley instead of Liara (because asking for a threesome was out of the question for Ashley).  I wanted to make sure Wrex lived, I wanted to get my paragon so high that in the end I could skip an entire fight by making Saren see the light just long enough for him to blow his own brains out.  That’s how I treated the second game as well because the choices from each game carry over to the sequel.  I read that we were promised sixteen different endings for this epic trilogy and I expected it to be magical or something.  I thought I would be getting the good ending since I played like an angel throughout the series.  I kept people alive when I really wanted to kill them and I always said the right thing.  I figured I’d get a paragon ending because that’s how I evolved my Sheppard.  I say “my” Sheppard because with all the choices that can be made in the trilogy, it will be hard to find two that are exactly alike (that is to include appearance).

I love Mass Effect 3 and I suggest that every fan of space adventures play it, but it’s literally the last five minutes of the game that totally destroys the credibility of Bioware’s writers.  Here is my list of why the ending sucks ass.  In case you didn’t read the first paragraph, spoilers will follow.

1.        Those sixteen different endings are ALL THE SAME.  I’ve watched the sixteen different endings on Youtube and I can tell you that they are all pretty much the same with minor differences here and there.  So much for the “wildly” different endings right?  The outcome is the same in all of them except the renegade option, which leaves us thinking that Sheppard may still be alive because we see him take a breath while lying in some rubble. 

2.       Why the hell did the Normandy flee?  The entire game we grow to love the characters in the trilogy and one thing I’ve learned is that they would NEVER leave their commander behind.  Ever.  Especially when the entire galaxy is fighting for survival.  How does the man that told Sheppard that he expects him to come back just run away and leave him to die?  It doesn’t make sense and it destroys Joker’s credibility as a loyal person. 

3.       How is the crew that was on the ground with Sheppard as they got obliterated by Harbinger all of a sudden on the Normandy with Joker after he crash lands on some shitty planet?  This tells me that Joker had time to go down to the surface, pick up my crew whilst in the presence of the most powerful Reaper, and then make it all the way to the Mass relay.  I don’t believe for a second that Joker would flee, and I definitely don’t believe that he would pick up other crew members but NOT his commander.  I don’t buy it, not for a damn second.  The crew on the ground wouldn’t have left and if they were on the ship, they wouldn’t have let Joker flee.  My God, I feel as if the writers had someone shit on their brains while they wrote this ending. 

4.       The Star Child (or God child as I have seen him referred to):  In the beginning of the game, Sheppard watches a ship explode by Reaper fire.  There was a child on that ship that Sheppard had tried to save only minutes earlier.  Sheppard has frequent dreams about the child and now, here at the end of the game, the star child takes on the form of that very kid.  But that isn’t what bothers me about the star child.  This little fucker is not only introduced within the LAST FIVE MINUTES of an entire trilogy, but he also tells Sheppard that he is the one that created the Reapers and that they are his answer.  For what, you ask?  Chaos of course.  His explanation is full of shit.  In order to prevent chaos, this new character states that the reapers, who are synthetic, destroy all advanced organic life in order to prevent those organics from creating synthetics that could turn on their masters and destroy them.  So basically, synthetics wipe out organics so they can prevent synthetics from wiping out organics?  What?  On top of this kid spoon feeding Sheppard this shit; Sheppard doesn’t call him out on it.  Had it been any other character in the game Sheppard would have whipped his cock out and slapped around whoever was messing with him, but nope, not here.

5.       The Mass Relay Explosion:  As seen in the Arrival DLC package in Mass Effect 2, destroying a Mass Relay pretty much destroys the system that occupied it.  So in every possible ending, all of the Mass Relays get destroyed.  Wouldn’t that mean that the entire galaxy that houses a Relay would simply be destroyed?  According to that logic, you’d think so, but nope, it doesn’t happen.

6.       The entire galaxy came to Earth to fight the Reapers, which totally sucks for them because after the relay is destroyed, no one can leave.  Everyone is going to starve to death because most of them can’t eat human food and Earth is so fucked up that it may not even be able to feed the Humans.  To me it seems as if the Reapers still win in the end, total downer.    

7.       All the choices made in the game mean nothing: As I’ve stated before my hate list, the gamer gets to choose the actions of Sheppard and it affected the plot.  Until you get to the end that is.  Instead of the choices you’ve made leading up to that point, the stupid star fucker gives you three option, leaving Sheppard to die in every outcome.  You can blow the Reapers up, you can control the Reapers, or you can make it so the entire galaxy is half organic and half synthetic, which would end the war.  STUPID!  The entire trilogy leads up this and those are the only options Sheppard has?  Is it so wrong that with sixteen “wildly” different endings that one of them could be a happy one?  Whatever.  My Sheppard would have told that kid to fuck off.

8.       Minor details that don’t make sense to me: Such as Harbinger leaving the battle after he burns Sheppard’s armor off.  The Reapers brought the Citadel to Earth and since the Citadel was the final key in destroying the Reapers, they made a conduit that leads pretty much right to the exact place Sheppard needed to be to open the Citadel arms.  Once Sheppard gets up there, he is communicating with Anderson, despite having his shit burned off, which I would have assumed included the tools that allow him to radio people.  How does Anderson beat Sheppard to the control room?  The path Sheppard is on is literally a straight shot.  Walk in a straight line and you’ll get there, yet Anderson was there before Sheppard despite the fact that the only way to get there was the bridge that connected to Sheppard’s entrance.  Then the Illusive Man shows up after Sheppard reaches Anderson.  Where did the Illusive Man come from?  Again, one entrance and there were only dead people and a Keeper where Sheppard showed up.  Why wasn’t Anderson fucked up like Sheppard?  The dude didn’t have one scratch on him, he was perfect.  It’s almost like he didn’t run from the same exact spot Sheppard did moments before, even though we saw him standing next to Sheppard before making that sprinting failure towards the finish.  It just seems that with all the great writing this series has seen, minimal details like these would be easy to fix, but they’re not.  So it leads me to the question, is it bad writing or is there some other reason for it (more on that in a minute).

9.       The Illusive Man: He is so totally indoctrinated by the Reapers (I shouldn’t have to explain what indoctrination is) that it is evident that he isn’t in control of himself.  In fact, as far as the series goes, indoctrination appears to be the ONLY way someone can control the actions of others and it’s ONLY the Reapers who can do that.  So how does the Illusive Man gain control over both Anderson and Sheppard?  It doesn’t make sense that one indoctrinated being can control two beings that aren’t indoctrinated.  What the hell Bioware?  That seems like an important detail.

10.   The old man and his granddaughter, daughter, or whatever:  What the hell is this?  I’m not sure if the whole thing was a made up story because of this, or if the girl I chose to bump ugs with wound up making babies with Joker on whatever planet they landed on and these people are the product of a continued civilization centuries later.  Who knows, either way it’s stupid.  Especially when they refer to the hero of the galaxy as “The Sheppard”.  This was a terrible thing to put into the ending because it’s confusing. 

I’m not sure why Bioware ended their game like this.  I was one of the last people I know to have actually completed the game and I had already had the displeasure of hearing everyone freak out about it.  At first I couldn’t help but be mad at them because this is a product of Bioware and they can end the game however they feel like it.  Then after completing the game for myself, I realized that Bioware did make a mistake.  They introduced a character in the last five minutes of the game and on top of that they created more loopholes than were there to begin with on top of not plugging up any at all.  I feel that bringing the entire galaxy to war was a waste, despite how awesome it was to watch the fleets charge into battle.  We didn’t get to see much of that effort being made.  I feel that with the Relays being destroyed, my efforts to bring peace to the Quarians and the Geth were useless as well as helping the Krogan and Turians get along.  It makes me feel hopeless when something I’ve spent hours on and got emotionally invested in wound up causing more confusion.  What happened to my choices?  They didn’t have any merit in the ending at all. 

Now after beating the game I scoured the internet to finally read the buzz.  I had avoided it before because I wanted to experience this tragedy first hand without having it spoiled for me.  After seeing everyone’s thoughts I can concur with the rise of fans up against the company that roped them in and then ended something good with garbage.  Were they rushed?  I don’t know, but I can say that this magnificent game they created was reduced to something that hurts to think about because all I see is an awesome story that took a nasty turn for the worst.  It’s no surprise to see that Bioware is releasing an extended cut to clarify why their shit is so shitty after seeing how their fans reacted.  This movement will forever change the relationship between developers and the fans, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be a good thing or not.  The only thing I know is that they’re keeping the same crappy endings; they’re just clarifying stuff for us.  It won’t fix the fact that we didn’t get the “wildly” different endings, but we never did get a final boss to fight.  Unless of course you consider Marauder Shields (watch video if you don’t get it). 

Now I may be a tad more forgiving if in fact Bioware intended that ending for a greater purpose, such as the Indoctrination theory.  I won’t get into all the gritty details, but I will post a video that you should watch.  The theory is completely fan made but with all the evidence given, one cannot look away from it and say that it’s not a possibility.  The little boy that Sheppard sees die in the beginning is probably the most prominent evidence I can see.  Sheppard is literally the ONLY person who ever sees him, then he even dreams about him, and in the end he’s the star child.  Sheppard has come into contact with Reapers and reaper tech and has been exposed enough to be indoctrinated.  In the description it states that the process could take years.  What if Sheppard was knocked unconscious whilst running for the conduit and everything that takes place after that is in his head.  It would explain being beamed up to the direct place he needed to be, it would explain how he was communicating with Anderson, and it would explain the star child.  The only way Sheppard is to win is by choosing the renegade option, which is the only option that you can see him breath afterwards.  Please watch the videos I posted because they are awesome and convincing.  After watching the video, tell me what you think. 

Dear Journal: My Trip to Boston/PAX East Part IV (Final)

Sunday 8 April 12, 2012

I was able to shake off the fact that my cousin had the same views on sharing as my four year old daughter and actually got better sleep than the night before.  Unfortunately, the cold that I had been getting seemed to hate my guts more than ever on Sunday morning.  Hell, it didn’t really let up until I was sipping on my hot Dunkin Donuts coffee.  Yes, three days in a row we ate at a donut shop, but that was honestly the only place to grab a freaking bite to eat.  This day sucked even worse for the bus.  Not only does Boston hate its citizens by sending the bus every eighty freaking minutes on the weekends, but it was Easter Sunday and we had no doubt in our mind that they were going to make us pay.  I had even set my alarm to go off at 0545 that morning, even though I told my uncle that it was set for 0600.  That actually happened to be the time that he was taking his shower.  I just wanted to get a super jump start on the day so we could try to get there at a decent time.  Well lucky for us the bus was nowhere in site, so we started walking the three miles or so to the subway.

This picture has nothing to do with this paragraph

We walked far enough to reach the next bus stop and saw a man standing there waiting.  Hell I figured he was most likely a Bostonian and he knew the bus schedule.  Surely it had to be coming soon right?  Well apparently this man had been waiting there for over an hour already and we stood with him for another twenty minutes.  It wasn’t too bad though because he provided some pretty neat conversation.  He appeared to be a hard working honest American, but we soon found out that he was a compulsive liar.  I guess the thing that gave it away to me was early in the conversation he had told us that his dad’s only job had been at the airport and he retired from that at the young age of 35.  But later, as we were on the bus, he had revealed to me (because I told him I was in the military), that his dad was a retired Veteran, even though earlier he stated he was a retired Airport employee.  Apparently he served in the Army starting at the ridiculously young age of fifteen and was forced to retire at the much older age of 62.  He told us his dad turned down Sergeant Major because he didn’t want more responsibility, so the Army forced him out.  His dad then went to Kennedy to try and stay in, but Kennedy told him to fuck off.  So everything he had said up to that point was immediately put into question on whether or not it was fabricated, but we didn’t care because he was a fun dude to talk to regardless of how full of shit he was.  Sometimes you’ll meet characters like this and you just need to let them be who they are. 

Despite the Boston public transportation treating us like dirty hookers, we still managed to get to PAX shortly after the doors opened, which was at least an hour better than the other two days.  So since we got there so super early, we managed to get into the third Hunger Games row.  Of course showing up this early meant we had to stand there and wait a decade for the show floor to open at ten.  I’m kidding; we sat down and discussed our strategy to get as much swag as we possibly could.  We figured we’d head over to say happy birthday to Lord of the Rings Online first because they were handing out hoodies.  Then I would give my Uncle my phone that had my Facebook displayed where I was talking about Max Payne 3 so he could nab a free T-shirt from the Max Payne booth.  I had done it the day before and the chick at the counter didn’t really read what I said on there.   I could’ve said Max Payne 3 sucks more cock than Justin Beaver and I still would have scored my shirt.  Let’s be honest, they get free publicity and actually save money on all the shirts they hand out, not too shabby eh?  So after that we would go to the Assassin’s Creed booth to pre-order the game to get a free T-Shirt from them, even though we didn’t have any intentions on actually purchasing anything from Gamestop.  I hate Gamestop, mainly because of their used game system. 

“Yeah I want to return Halo Reach.”

“Okay, we’ll give you ten dollars for it.” 

“Seriously?  The game is only a week old.”

Sure, I exaggerated the buyback price, but they do low ball you like that because they’re cheap bastards who will turn around and sell it for almost the full price of a brand new copy.  I’d rather buy my used games from Gamefly. 

As opening grew closer, people began standing up off their asses and crowded the front of the line.  Apparently more space is used when people sit down because when everyone was within dry humping range of each other, I noticed that the line wasn’t even half full.  Unfortunately there were still hordes of people coming in to join the massive line and thought it would be a great idea to hop over the rope in the lines ahead of us and take a permanent spot there.  It was total bullshit.  Granted we were in the third line and not that from the front, but it still pissed me off because we had waited an hour and a half and these people had just walked through the door.  So me and two people we had been chatting with cut over into the second line, this way we weren’t being cheated by the ass hats that were just making their way in.  It took some convincing to get my Uncle to come over, and he finally did.  Not without regret though, he felt bad for most of the morning as far as I could tell and maybe even longer than that.  I suppose the fact that when the lines did open and we started moving, a person from the third line cut into the second line as it was moving.  It was the same thing we did, but she did it right in front of the people monitoring the traffic.  She was yelled at to move to the back of the line for cutting.  It even made me feel a little guilty about it cutting, but then again, I wasn’t a dumbass about it.  She must have given some sob act or flashed her boobs because they let her go ahead anyway.

As planned, our first stop was The Lord of the Rings Online booth where they had a bunch of hoodies set out in anticipation of the oncoming birthday wishes.  All we had to do was say happy birthday.  Unbeknownst to me, we had to say it on camera.  At that point I would have whored myself out for a free T-shirt so getting on camera was no issue at all.  It was like I was addicted to crack and my crack was the useless free shit being handed out everywhere.  As I was standing there waiting to talk to the guy who was doing the camera footage, some chick came walking up to me dressed as an elf.  I assumed she worked at the Lord of the Rings booth because she was sporting their logo on her cape.  She had the hugest Adam’s apple I’ve ever seen, by the way.   

“Are you here to say happy birthday to LotRo?”  Sweet Jesus it was a dude!  I can’t believe I just called him, it.  In my defense, he totally looked like a girl because of his white silky hair that went the length of his body, his girly facial features, and his big perky breasts.  What a weirdo.  So all we had to do was look into this guy’s camera and say “Happy birthday LotRo!”  I may never wear the hoodie, but damnit if it wasn’t free.  Besides, we didn't make the cut for their stupid video anyway haha.  After speaking with the dude chick and posing for the camera, I gave my phone to my Uncle so he could go get a free Max Payne T.  Instead of walking over there with him, I decided to check out Witcher 2.  I’m wasn’t interested in that game so I played it for thirty seconds and began to walk off.  I didn’t even make it off of their game area when one of the dudes working their booth shoved a free Witcher 2 T in my face.  Hell yeah bitch, I want a shirt to a game I’ll never play!  My Uncle found me after that and decided he wanted a new shirt too.   

While I was standing near the stairs, which happened to be perfectly aligned right between the Witcher 2 booth and the Xbox staging area, I saw the funniest thing.  Have you ever seen people play the Kinect?  It’s funny as hell to watch, depending what title they’re moving around to.  Well I was in the perfect position to watch someone play the Kinect, even though the Kinect was located on the other side of the wall he was looking at.  He was looking at the TV that was displayed to show people on the outside what people on the inside were playing.  He was literally the ONLY person who wasn’t aware that he wasn’t controlling the action on the screen.  The game was Star Wars Kinect and it was the game mode where the giant monster thingy runs around and smashes all the buildings.  So basically this guy was jumping up and down and waving his arms wildly trying to smash everything.  It was priceless.  Considering the arms never reacted to his movements or anything, he probably thought the game was terrible (which I’ve heard it is), and he walked off before capturing the whole thing on film even occurred to me.

After the free entertainment we made our way over to the Diablo III line, and I have to say my feet were already killing me.  It was barely 1030 and we were most likely going to be in the building until five.  Standing in place while my arches were screaming in agony really sucked, but my mind was able to drift away from it as we watched people playing Diablo, Torchlight, and new Battlefield 3 content.  The line was for one of the three, but we actually only wanted to play Torchlight because they were handing out pretty sweet swag bags.  My Uncle had decided that Diablo was coming out next month, so he could wait to play it.  While we were waiting, my Uncle asked an Enforcer if there were any developers from Blizzard on site, and the dude pointed one out the same way my daughter would point at a weird person in public.  The dude saw the enforcer pointing at him so he walked over and asked if my Uncle had a question.  He didn’t have a question so the guy says to us, “If I hand out beta codes, would you guys still stand in line?”  Hell yeah we’d stay in line because we’re not here to play Diablo III, but we’d still totally take a code.  That’s what he did; he went around the line and handed out codes.  So we played Torchlight II and it was grand.  Although, having since played the Diablo III beta, I can say that Diablo is a much better game by far.  Much better. 

Sunday was our lazy day; we didn’t really want to do much because our dogs were killing us.  So we decided to wander over to The Secret World booth because I told a friend that I would play it for him.  While we were over there we stopped by the Red vs Blue booth.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with the show, but one of the voice actors, Gus (don’t know his last name, don’t really care) was there signing autographs.  Now I’m a huge fan of Red vs Blue and I own their first five seasons on DVD.  I don’t own their latest ones and they had a DVD there that had all three of them on one disc.  So I asked Gus how much and he said 30.  He didn’t bother making eye contact with me, even though when I was standing there wasn’t anyone else who was begging him for his Herbie Hancock.  I’m guessing it’s because he’s a huge celebrity who thinks that making eye contact with the bottom feeders of the world would make him less famous, even though he’s not a real celeb.  So instead of trying to conduct business with this ass hat, I ask the chick next to him how much the shirts are.  I’m so addicted to shirts at this point that I was seriously contemplating on buying one.  Twenty dollars is the damage, which is a total crock of shit if you ask me.  There are tons of booths giving them away for free.  So she asks me what size and I tell her the sexy kind of man size that I am and she’s all like, we have this one and the Gus shirt in your size.

“Who the hell wants a Gus shirt?”  It wasn’t meant to be hilarious, but the dude didn’t even notice I said it.  Either it was too loud and he couldn’t hear me, or he was just ignoring me.  Perhaps if I had offered to inflate his ego in exchange for a worthless autograph he would have laughed at such a stupid joke…No I’m just kidding, I don’t think he’s conceded like that.  He just ignored me because I was being a flaming douche, which I was doing on purpose, because I don’t like him.

I'm in the game, well, the poster anyway.

So I hopped across the way just in time to watch a live demo of The Secret World.  I had enough time to waste since my Uncle needed to tinkle for the tenth time that morning.   It was like half an hour long so even he wound up watching it from the back of the crowd.  At the end of the demo the developers got the crowd psyched up for some free beta codes that came with dog tags.  I was like, hell yeah!  But instead of handing them out one person at a time like normal people do, they tossed them into the crowd like we were a bunch of starving slaves.  I may have elbowed a few faces to get two codes, but I totally got them so back off.  Then they wanted to give out some free T-shirts for wasting thirty minutes of our time.  Just like with the beta codes, they didn’t hand them out one at a time, they made us fight for them like football players after a fumble.  They only had three shirts for like a hundred people.  The first shirt went to the right, the second to the middle, and finally, the last shirt made its way towards me.  I reached up and caught a fist full of it.  I had a decent grip on it because I caught it first, but four or so people behind me grabbed it too.  They tried to wrestle it from me, but I used all the manly muscles I have (which is tons), and yanked it to safety.  I had to see who I just owned because the victory was so juicy, so I turned around and saw that at least three of the people I fought were girls.  Small girls who couldn’t punch a cardboard cutout over.  Oh well, life isn’t fair and I wanted that shirt like Dan Marino wanted a Super Bowl.  We can’t all be winners can we Dan?  I went to show my Uncle my prize and to my realization, there were two shirts stuck together.  Perhaps that was the reason I was getting so many dirty looks as I strutted away with a smug look on my face. 

I wanted to pretend to grope the girl's boob

With the day winding down we squeezed in enough time to play Max Payne three again and viewed a live demo of the new X-Com.  X-Com is a strategy game that I’ve never thought of playing in the past, but it actually looked really amazing.  Watching someone else do it was pretty sweet and it showed me how it should be played, so it may be something I test out in the future.  After that we were done.  We went up to the main lobby where my Uncle snagged a bunch of free Five Hour Energy shots while I stared at a chunky girl holding a sign that said “Free Hugs.”  I contemplated it but then decided that she had herpes on her sweater.  I tasted one of those five hour energies by the way and it was like downing a shot of grape cough syrup.  Gross.  So all in all we had a great weekend, played some new games, met a lot of people who were just like us, and got a ton of free stuff in the process.  I smashed my knee getting on the bus; I assumed that it was karma for stealing two shirts from those wimpy girls and not hugging the fat chick.